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Iliaqu: Difference between revisions
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=====Possessive===== | =====Possessive===== | ||
The possessive case indicates strictly legal ownership. It is more or less equivalent to the preposition 'of' in English and may be used to indicate 'have' or 'own'. It is formed similarly to the genitive case: by prefixing '''u(g)-''' ('''iu(g)-''' in plural) but | The possessive case indicates strictly legal ownership. It is more or less equivalent to the preposition 'of' in English and may be used to indicate 'have' or 'own'. It is formed similarly to the genitive case: by prefixing '''u(g)-''' ('''iu(g)-''' in plural) but to a nominative nominal rather than an accusative one. | ||
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Because of the law in Qu, according to which only ''muja'' (initiated men) are recognised as the legal ''owners'' of things (including slaves). In the underground humanist community, the possessive case may sometimes be applied to non-''muja'' as well, but it is also very common for | It should be noted that, although in many languages, the genitive or possessive case is usually adnominal, referring to an immediately adjacent noun phrase, in Iliaqu, all nominals, regardless of case, refer to the predicate in their clause unless verbalised with the [[#Nominal_to_Verbal|copular prefix]]. Compare the following sentences. | ||
::{| cellpadding="2" | |||
|- | |||
| '''masa''' || '''xua''' || '''luxa''' || '''buja''' || '''{{color|MediumBlue|g-una}}''' | |||
|- | |||
| be.snake || LOC.3S.DEF.INAN || be.interior || be.boot || COP-POS.1S.ACS | |||
|- | |||
| "be a snake" || "at the thing which" || "be the inside" || "be a boot" || "be mine" | |||
|- | |||
| colspan="5" | ''There's a snake in {{color|MediumBlue|my}} boot.'' — '''muja''' [ACS/SUB] | |||
|} | |||
::{| cellpadding="2" | |||
|- | |||
| '''masa''' || '''xua''' || '''luxa''' || '''buja''' || '''{{color|MediumBlue|una}}''' | |||
|- | |||
| be.snake || LOC.3S.DEF.INAN || be.interior || be.boot || POS.1S.ACS | |||
|- | |||
| "be a snake" || "at the thing which" || "be the inside" || "be a boot" || "my" | |||
|- | |||
| colspan="5" | ''There's a snake in the boot {{color|MediumBlue| and it's mine}}.'' / ''{{color|MediumBlue|I own}} a snake which is in the boot. — '''muja''' [ACS/SUB] | |||
|} | |||
In the second sentence, the lack of the copula on '''une''' indicates that it represents an argument of the predicate ('''masa''' 'there is a snake'), meaning that it is the snake which belongs to the speaker, not the boot. The word order, placing the unadorned possessive argument ('''une''') after the much heavier locative argument ('''xua luxa buja''') is heavily marked, placing focus on the fact that the snake is the speaker's legal possession. | |||
Because of the law in Qu, according to which only ''muja'' (initiated men) are recognised as the legal ''owners'' of things (including slaves). In the underground humanist community, ''ataiva'', the possessive case may sometimes be applied to non-''muja'' as well, but it is also very common for ''ataiva'' to avoid the possessive case entirely in favour of the genitive case. | |||
=====Vocative===== | =====Vocative===== | ||